


Teenage Rebellion

by phoenixnz



Series: The Chronicles of Martha and Jonathan [24]
Category: Smallville
Genre: Episode Related, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-08 22:41:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14703930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixnz/pseuds/phoenixnz
Summary: Clark acts out in what seems to be a fit of teenage rebellion, but is there more to it?





	Teenage Rebellion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BigRed67](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BigRed67/gifts).



They’d been arguing about it for weeks. Clark wanted to buy a class ring but Jonathan refused to give permission. As far as he was concerned, it was too much money for something that really didn’t mean all that much. He had had the same argument with his father, but the class ring hadn’t been as expensive in his high school days.

“Come on, Dad. It’s my money!”

“It’s $350, Clark. It’s a lot of money to spend on something you really don’t need!”

Clark glared at him from his end of the kitchen table. Pete had just arrived to pick Clark up and had walked in in the middle of the argument. He looked uncomfortable.

“Uh, Clark, man I’m just gonna go wait in the car.”

Jonathan sighed. He knew they were at a stalemate. Martha glanced at him and shrugged. Clark was fifteen. They had to trust that he would make the right decision. 

Which was why he was bitterly disappointed when just a few days later he saw the ring on Clark’s finger. It looked cheap and very low-quality. Certainly not worth $350. 

He’d been working on his motorcycle in the barn, waiting for Clark to come home from school. His son was supposed to have been working on trying to fix the garage door with him, but he was late. 

Martha stood watching as he finished buffing the metal until it shone. She playfully told him she would get first ride once he was done. Just as playfully he told his wife everyone else would just have to get in line. Not that he would ever want anyone else to ride behind him. 

He looked at her, wishing it wasn’t late afternoon and too close to dinnertime. He remembered the odd occasions when they’d been dating, or the first couple of years they were married when he’d take her out on the cycle. He’d take her to a sweet little diner in Granville, or plan a picnic. 

Once, he’d taken her out for a midnight picnic out under the stars. Martha had laid beside him on the blanket, curled up by his side, as he pointed out the constellations. He hadn’t known all of them so he’d made names up. 

Just as he was about to suggest something, Clark turned up. When he saw the ring, he again argued that it was too much money. He was taken aback when his son talked back to him, sounding more like a sulky teenager. He wasn’t usually given to fits of temper, or petulance, so it was a surprise to see him acting this way.

He shot Martha a confused look. She put it down to what they figured was usually a phase brought on by puberty. Jonathan knew it well. He and Jack Jennings had managed to get into quite a bit of trouble at the same age as Clark. He’d also gone out and spent $500 on an old motorcycle, against his father’s wishes. The very same motorcycle he’d been working on. 

It seemed odd, however. He wondered if it had something to do with his son’s strange abilities. They’d only just been able to get used to the fact the boy could start fires with his eyes. That had been difficult enough to deal with. 

He was still not happy with Clark’s decision to buy the ring, but Martha gently reminded him it was still their son’s decision to make and making a big deal out of it was just going to make it worse. He nodded and pulled her close, kissing her on the top of her head.

“You are one smart woman, Martha Kent.”

She just looked up at him with a knowing smile. Not for the first time he couldn’t help reflecting on just how lucky he was that she had fallen in love with him. 

Still, back-talk was one thing, but after the phone call from the credit card company, asking about the series of charges on the card, Jonathan knew this was far more than that. He confronted his son, only for the teen to get even more of an attitude. 

This was more than just teenage rebellion, he thought, as Martha covered her face with her hands. He did his best to comfort her but tried not to show her how worried and confused he was. Even he would never have defied his father by going out and spending thousands of dollars that they just didn’t have and had no way of being able to pay back. 

He decided to head to the school. Martha tried to stop him.

“Jonathan, you’ll just make it worse!” she warned. 

“Someone has to do something,” he replied. “This is more than just your typical teenage rebellion. I am not going to let our son get away with talking to us like this or stealing from us.”

She sighed, knowing he was right. She worried as he left in the truck, wondering what he was going to be confronted with when he did get to the school. She knew he was trying to hide it, but he was just as confused and concerned as she was. Maybe even more so. 

It just was so unlike their son, who had always done as he was told. Sure, there had been a few moments where he had disobeyed, like last year when he’d joined the football team, against his father’s wishes. Then there was the not-so-little matter of his friendship with Lex. As much as Martha wanted to like the young man, she thought he was too arrogant. It seemed strange to her that someone like Lex would want to be friends with Clark.

Her worst fear was that Lex was using Clark for some yet-to-be-discovered purpose of his own. Despite the many ways he’d tried to ingratiate himself with her and Jonathan. 

She wondered if Clark’s new attitude had something to do with Lex. It just didn’t make sense any other way. She knew her son felt left out when all his friends had the latest in computer games and he envied Lex for his wealth. There were times when she thought they should be honest with Clark about the sad state of their finances, but she didn’t want her son feeling guilty because of it. God knew it could be expensive raising children but he still helped on the farm, saving them the cost of hiring hands. There was always a give and take with Clark. 

She grew even more worried when Jonathan came home and told her Clark had shoved him hard enough that he hit the truck. She couldn’t believe the teen would do something like this. 

What made it worse was this had seemed to have happened overnight. There was no way this was just normal teenage rebellion. It had to be something else.

The answer to that came after they called Pete. He came to the farm later that afternoon and told them Chloe had discovered the stones in the class rings were made of meteor rock. Red meteor rock. 

When they confronted Clark about it, he didn’t seem to care. Or rather, he appeared happy about it. As if using the ring gave him permission to express feelings he’d buried deep down. 

When he drove off the next day in Lex’s Ferrari, Jonathan looked at her. She wasn’t sure if his eyes were streaming from the dust or whether he was crying. 

“What do we do now?” he asked helplessly. 

She had no idea. Clark could just disappear and they would have no way of getting him back. 

Who would have thought Lex Luthor would provide the break they needed? Despite their ambivalent feelings toward the young man, it seemed he genuinely cared about Clark. Thanks to him, and help from Pete, Jonathan was able to destroy the ring and get Clark back. 

As they lay in bed that night, Martha couldn’t sleep.

“You okay, sweetheart?” Jonathan asked.

“Honestly? I don’t know. I mean, I know it wasn’t him, but …”

“Those feelings had to come from somewhere,” Jonathan said. “Maybe the ring takes away his inhibitions.”

“Sometimes I wish … I hate that we can’t give him all the things his friends have.”

Jonathan wrapped his arms around her. “I know. I want that too, but we can’t.”

She couldn’t help remembering the things he’d said about them using his abilities. If he was just a ‘normal’ kid, he’d be asked to do chores, but certainly not the bulk of the farmwork. Was that using him?

“All those things he said. Do you think that he really feels that way?”

“I don’t know, sweetheart.”

That was the whole point. They would never really know for sure.


End file.
